House Passes Auto Rescue Plan

Even 18% of Republicans supported it, and I thought that would be much lower. Of course, when you think about all the representatives from those Midwest states that need these jobs, maybe that number isn’t all that surprising.

The House just passed the $14 billion Detroit Big Three autos bailout bill by a vote of 237-170, sending it to a Senate where approval is no slam-dunk, thanks to the promised opposition of leading Republicans.

The bill was overwhelmingly endorsed by Democrats (205-20) and strongly opposed by Republicans (32-150).

The money provides nearly instant emergency bridge loans to GM and Chrysler at a low, low introductory rate of 5 percent. Ford said it doesn’t need the money right now but wants to be able to tap it if the economy worsens.

The one thing that kind of burns me in all of this is how people are demanding that we not give the car makers any money…and yet the money that lawmakers are voting on had been appropriated for them anyway…

The money is a repurposing of $14 billion of $25 billion in direct loans already approved to the automakers to help them retool their factories to make more fuel-efficient vehicles.

And guess what they’ll do with this money? Oh, I don’t know, maybe retool their factories to make more fuel-efficient vehicles?